Without presenting proof, US President Joe Biden declared on Monday that Russian assertions that Kyiv possesses biological and chemical weapons are baseless and show that Russian President Vladimir Putin is considering deploying them himself in his conflict against Ukraine.

At a Business Roundtable event, Biden stated that Putin’s  “back is against the wall and now he’s talking about new false flags he’s setting up, including asserting that we in America have biological as well as chemical weapons in Europe, which is simply not true.”

“They are also suggesting that Ukraine has biological and chemical weapons in Ukraine.” That’s a clear sign he’s considering using both of those. “

A request for comment was not immediately responded to by the Russian embassy in Washington.

The remarks matched previous statements by officials in Washington and other nations accusing Russia of propagating an unfounded notion that Ukraine has a biological weapons program as a possible precursor to launching its own biological or chemical strikes.